Madam Speaker, I would like to start by returning all the compliments I received from my hon. colleague for Courtenay—Alberni. I also consider him an outstanding member who works for people, for those who sometimes run into problems. Social equity is very important to him, as his question showed.
My personal fight in the House is a fight against tax havens. How do we make unlawful that which is immoral? Why is it that the banks, by using obscure clauses written in fine print and buried among tens of thousands of pages, are allowed to get away with paying less tax by artificially, virtually, declaring the profits they earn in Canada through subsidiaries in the Caribbean Islands or elsewhere? That is unacceptable.
Equity must exist across the entire economy and throughout society as a whole. For example, if oil companies are making record profits while severe poverty is creating problems, we have to ask whether something can be done to redistribute wealth in a better way. The Scandinavian example has shown us that a better distribution of wealth benefits everyone in the end. Solidarity generates economic growth.